Vadodara-based Centre for Fuel Studies and Research highlights the mismatch between energy and fuel plans by different arms of the government: the ministry of surface(सतह/धरातल) transport plans to make India all-electric by 2030, at the same time, refiners(चमकानेवाला/सुधारनेवाला) are going ahead with plans to increase refining capacity by 77% by that same year, even as plans are afoot to greatly step up the use of natural gas for electricity generation.Some may celebrate the visible absence of central planning in these disparate pursuits(व्यवसाय/लक्ष्य) of different energy futures for the country. But it would be a mistake to miss a simple point: a breakthrough in electricity storage technology, along with steady advance in long-distance transmission(हस्तांतरण/सौंपना)) of electricity, can bring about a sea change in the fuel mix across the globe(पृथ्वी/दुनिया).

The Chinese already deploy ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission lines to transport power across their nation’s vast distances. The same technology can be used to evacuate(खाली/छोड़ जाना) power from massive(बड़ा/व्यापक) solar farms in, say, the Sahara, Thar and Gobi deserts across time zones, to extend the availability of solar power beyond the duration of local availability of sunlight.If power produced by solar and wind farms can be stored and retrieved at will and at low cost — a big if, of course — power grids can ditch dependence on conventional sources and stop paying their capacity charge, bringing(लाना) down the cost of using renewable energy.Lithium-ion batteries are expensive, but significant amount of research is underway in novel methods of storing power, to slash the cost of large-scale storage. Advances in computing and material sciences promise to make the task of confining(सीमित) superhot plasma in fusion reactors doable(संभव/सुधार करने योग्‍य) by the middle of the next decade. There are, in short, multiple challenges to the dominance of hydrocarbons in the world’s fuel mix.It would be a rational choice for India to incentivise faster extraction of known domestic deposits of hydrocarbons before their use gets restricted to the petrochemical industry, and prices crash, turning investor interest away. Removing irrational(बेसमझ/तर्कहीन) taxes would be a start.